Nuns are “terrified” to speak up and defend themselves against “unfair and unbalanced” portrayals of them in film and media, according to the Association of Catholic Priests.

Fr Tony Flannery, the Redemptorist priest who founded the association, said that most nuns in Ireland today “are now too old and too fearful” to go public and challenge negative portrayals of them.

“I don’t blame them in the present climate in this country,” he told the Irish Independent.

The ACP said it had decided to speak out “in protest at the way nuns are being portrayed”.

In a statement, the group said: “Society judges the past harshly while media outlets seek to outdo each other in condemnation.

“Religious sisters are vilified; a harsh hard-faced nun, dressed in traditional habit, has become the standard media image of all nuns. It is false and unjust.”

Image shows Cameroonian women who travelled to Dublin to thank Irish nuns who taught them